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23andMe's Fall

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Re: 23andMe's Fall

#251

Post by wslh »

331c8c71 wrote: post #235
wslh wrote: post #96

Please ELI5: I understand that one of the key features of 23andMe is their health report because the genealogy and the DNA dump are included in other companies. For a developer plus a scientist it is teally difficult to get the health data from the raw ADN and using current (Python?) modules?

Health report? They only have limited info about your DNA (common small variants). The further you move from obvious disease-causing or high-risk mutations the more expertise you need. But even there you need where to look and how to present the results. The real (honest) question is what such reports cover and what qre the precision/recall? Answering that requires far more than duct-taping a few python modules.

That is why I asked about having a scientist (or many of them). From your answer I understand that for every health condition, and probably jointly, you need to do an analyzer? I am trying to understand the complexity from a CS perspective. You have the string that is your DNA and then you need to pass different functions with their own complexity for detecting each health issue?

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#252

Post by xhkkffbf »

hoistbypetard wrote: post #141
ilamont wrote: post #77

This is a damning indictment of Wojcicki's management of the company. Failed execution on the drug development strategy over 10+ years, lying about growth, pushing out the cofounder, never making a profit, hack that went undiscovered for months ... about the only area she's had success is raising money and that's in large part thanks to being a member of the Silicon Valley elite. If she can't convince her family, fri…

I do too. That's why I've refused to use the kits I've been gifted... I assumed the fallback here was to build up a cache of data to sell. I'd be nice if they could be prevented from doing that, possibly by the court system.

But is it bad for there to be a cache of data for research? I don't even care if they make a great profit because if there's a great profit to be had it means that some drug came out of the research. While I'm generally cynical about many of the drugs, I do like the fact that the industry tries hard. Eventually they'll make something I want to take. And if this data helps them, all the better.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#253

Post by redconfetti »

kjellsbells wrote: post #110

Ah, 23andMe, the Experian of DNA. Look, I give her great credit for the women in STEM thing, her perseverance in the light of obstacles, and making a 10$ lab kit worth $399 to buyers. But to not understand how far actors would go to get hold of that data, to not understand that the drug industry is brutal because humans are poorly-understood meatsacks (see: anything by Derek Lowe), well, seems like that Yale educatio…

I was under the impression more that it was a $10 kit for a $399 test sold for $99 to users, at the expense of the investors in hopes that the data is able to be monetized somehow for more than $400 per user.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#254

Post by redconfetti »

oldgradstudent wrote: post #112

How could a company, that provided me the amazing insight that I have 71% likelihood of having little or no back hair, fail? BTW, I have quite a lot of back hair. Most of the other physical features are wrong.

I got the same result, which came across as stupid given that I have lots of back hair.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#255

Post by dikaio »

ilamont wrote: post #77

This is a damning indictment of Wojcicki's management of the company. Failed execution on the drug development strategy over 10+ years, lying about growth, pushing out the cofounder, never making a profit, hack that went undiscovered for months ... about the only area she's had success is raising money and that's in large part thanks to being a member of the Silicon Valley elite. If she can't convince her family, fri…

Agree. Everyone should be requesting to have their information deleted from their platform.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#256

Post by mancerayder »

The amount of success she had because of being connected to Brin is absolutely wild. It's literally make-or-break for her success. And her sister, CEO of YouTube?

It's a cliché what we say about connections and success, etc. and so forth. But that WSJ article really hammered how in this case how absolutely tied to connections this company, and her wealth, were, and how luck plays a role. In a business idea people are saying should have been doomed.

People are discussing all sorts of details about the company's business strategy, what they should have done with all the data, whether that data is useless, what they might do with it now, whether they should be allowed to, etc. Someone pointed out the GSK investment which was interesting.

But to me all this is trumped by the human element - how having the right neighbor, or boyfriend, or sister's boyfriend, can propel you to the top with unimaginable wealth. Something worth thinking about as we are on a forum run by a startup network: Given what we have learned here how meritorious is success in Silicon Valley really?

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#257

Post by danielmarkbruce »

mancerayder wrote: post #256

The amount of success she had because of being connected to Brin is absolutely wild. It's literally make-or-break for her success. And her sister, CEO of YouTube? It's a cliché what we say about connections and success, etc. and so forth. But that WSJ article really hammered how in this case how absolutely tied to connections this company, and her wealth, were, and how luck plays a role. In a business idea people are…

But she's failed. Zero success. And that failure is all over the wall street journal. The lesson is, no matter who your connections are your business will fail if it doesn't provide lots of value at a cost structure where it all adds up. Compare it to old Sergey - he was a know nobody 20 something nerd studying computer science. He co-created one of the most valuable businesses in the world.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#258

Post by maxerickson »

kube-system wrote: post #212
mjevans wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upgrade this to any medically adjacent data. ALL of the DNA data should be covered under HIPPA or something similar.

Genetic information is PHI and is already covered under HIPAA. The problem is that, like most companies, 23andMe isn't a HIPAA covered entity. Because they're not a healthcare provider or health insurer, it doesn't apply to them. Genetic information is also controlled by other laws such as GINA. So it is already some of the most controlled health data there is. But that's not a very high bar in the US.

It'd be fun to watch what would happen if data shared with services giving health advice fell under HIPAA.

It's not even really that unreasonable, if they want to advertise that they can provide health information, they don't get to pretend that they don't.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#259

Post by DarknessFalls »

astrange wrote: post #168
zamadatix wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, nobody is really interested in the test to find out they have G at SNP 12213244243 either. They do it specifically to get the ancestry, health, and potential physical bias type information you mention - that's the only real data anyone is talking about when referencing the test. Plenty of companies would love to have that kind of data to target users with. The real killer would probably be around how useless he…

That's kind of what I mean by it not being worth much though. Sure, leaks are embarrassing - the most common issue here is finding out that your dad isn't your real dad. But it's not useful for evil purposes because it's not /accurate/. It doesn't reveal all that much real additional information about your ancestry and health! Since it's decided before you're born: 1. its effects are mostly already expressed and peop…

Strongly disagree. Through 23andme, I was able to confirm that I have the mutation for the MTHFR gene, which explained why my vitamin B12 always ran low. Once I started supplementing with the methylated form of B12 and folic acid, I noticed a huge improvement in how I felt vs when I used cyanocobalamin for B12. Not to mention some very interesting side effects, like improved tolerance for caffeine.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#260

Post by bumby »

kjellsbells wrote: post #245
bumby wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 10$ lab kit worth $399 Can you elaborate? Does this mean they've added $389 in value, or they swindled people of $389? If it's the former, what did they do to create that value? (Not being snarky, I don't know enough about their business and am legitimately curious. There seems to be a lot of comments here about unfulfilled promises.)

The former. That is, they convinced people to pay a premium over the material cost of the test. Nothing skeevy about that, just good marketing. Assuming that customers were not misled. "It's not a pencil, it's the thing that writes the next Moby Dick" - that sort of thing.

That sounds more like the latter.
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